Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

One of my favorite people has a deal worked out with her friends: if someone repeats a story she's told before, the other person discreetly taps her fingers to let the story-teller know that she has unknowingly launched a repeat performance and is thereby advised to keep things brief. Kind of cute, kind of funny, but not anything gift-worthy...until we found this.

Yes, it's a hand-cranked finger-tapper (or, as the catalog prefers to call it, a "Wooden Hand Automaton"). There is no way anyone could have sought out this particular oddity on a gift-buying quest...but there it was, in the Signals catalog, on sale for $11.96.

Lesson learned: it's worth the tiny bit of effort it takes to peruse random catalogs or stores specializing in miscellanea with a completely open mind.

We put the gift in a box and labeled it as a "Rapping Rosewood Redundancy Reminder." The giftee loved it...and the best part is that she will get to share the fun of it with her fellow finger-tappers the next time they get together.